MadMup.com

The first Friday in this new year, I was in Chicago at an opera with my wife.  I had never been to an opera before, hadn’t even really heard that much opera music.  I’m not a huge fan of listening to things I don’t understand.  Yes, the music can be beautiful and soaring and difficult to sing and yada yada yada, but if I don’t know what they’re singing, it’s more frustrating than enjoyable.  The music by itself would be great, but as soon as you start singing words I don’t understand, well, who likes listening to people talk if you can’t understand them?  That’s not a racist thing, it’s a frustration thing.  They’re thinking the same about your talking, most likely!

You’ll be happy to know, though, that opera has figured out that most Americans are in the same boat I am.  They now (at least, at this opera house) use a small screen at the top of the proscenium arch to show English subtitles. Perfect!  A friend of mine did that in college years (and years and years) ago for his Senior recital, and it was a good idea then, too.

We saw Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which is a pretty famous opera, I guess. It was famous enough that I’d heard of it before, so that’s something.  It’s all in German, which is not the most … beautiful language.  Sorry, Germans!  There just seems to be a lot of extra throat-clearing going on there!  Anyway, with subtitles to follow, I found the opera to be quite enjoyable.  We were waaaaaaaaaaaay up in the top balcony, not many rows from the back of the theater. That actually made the subtitles easier to follow, and we could still see the whole stage.  I really enjoyed the staging and the scenery, as well as the trapdoors in the floor. You could pretty much tell when someone was about to fall through a trapdoor, but it was still neat.

Then, in the further Classy Adventures of MadMup, this past Saturday I went to a concert put on by our local Bach Chorale.  My wife has been singing with them for four years now. I’ve been to four concerts.  The best one was when they presented The Messiah in full, but my favorite was the Broadway music concert which was also a dinner.  The concert this past weekend was all in German and Latin, and I didn’t have a program, so I wasn’t sure what they were saying.  It sounded nice, but subtitles would have enhanced my enjoyment.

I know I’m supposed to have an appreciation for “high culture,” and I sort of do, it just isn’t what I would choose if I were left to my own devices.  A good Batman movie would give me way more enjoyment than Die Fledermaus would.  I know that makes me a hound dog, and I’m sorry.

I ain’t never caught a rabbit, either.

This album was released on June 18, 1985 and was the first album of musical comedy released on compact disc.

11. Slime Creatures from Outer Space – A love letter to scifi films of the 50s and 60s. Includes these great lyrics: “They’ll rip your head off just for fun, they’ll paralyze your mind / They’re wearing out their welcome I don’t think I like their kind.”

10. Girls Just Want to Have Lunch – Another food-related song! Producers made Al include a parody of a Cyndi Lauper, against his wishes. Apparently this song is one of his least favorite, but I’ve always enjoyed it.

9. George of the Jungle – One of the oddest songs in Al’s oeuvre, it’s a cover of a theme song for a cartoon. It did end up in the 1997 movie, though.

8. Cable TV – Al’s TV songs always do a great job of walking the line between showing how ridiculous TV is and how much he loves it. When you put this song in the context of cable being a relatively new thing that was really starting to take off, it becomes a fascinating snapshot of the era, I think.

7. This Is the Life – The theme song to Johnny Dangerously. “I eat filet mignon seven times a day, my bathtub’s filled with Perrier – what can I say? This is the life!”

6. Dare to Be Stupid – In some ways this is the quintessential Weird Al song. You can tell he’s having fun with this parody of DEVO.

5. Like a Surgeon – Al famously does not accept parody ideas from anyone…except for here.  The idea for this spoof of a Madonna song came from Madonna herself, who asked a friend how long it would be before Al did it.  Word got back to Al and he felt he needed to write it.

4. I Want a New Duck – I love this song simply because there are more duck puns per minute in this song than you’ll get anywhere else. My favorite is that Al wants a new duck so the duck can show him how “to get down.”

3. Hooked on Polkas – Again, I pretty much love every polka medley.

2. Yoda – The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980. This song got held up because (surprise) it was difficult for Al to get permission from George Lucas (and also the original song’s writer, but we know who the real bad guy is). Throughout the years Al does several “movies in song form” songs, and I love pretty much every one. This one holds a special place in most everyone’s heart, though, because it’s Yoda and Yoda is awesome.

1. One More Minute – This song is in my All Time Top Ten of Al songs.  A doo-wop song about breaking up with a girl that starts out tenderly and ends up, well, weirdly.  I sang a slightly-modified version of this song for a talent show in college, and it was the best-received comedic thing I ever did on stage there.  (Thanks, Al!) I had to modify it because the guy in charge thought the line “I’d rather clean every toilet in Grand Central Station with my tongue than spend one more minute with you” was “too gross.”  I’m inclined to agree with him.

This series is turning out to be one of the most fun things I’ve ever undertaken. I can’t really tell if anyone else in enjoying it, but I’m enjoying it enough personally that it honestly doesn’t matter – and for a guy that really, really wants an audience, that’s saying something!

I’m not much of a baseball fan.  I know it’s America’s Pastime and all that, but it doesn’t do much for me.  I do like going to an actual game and I have gotten redsox tickets sometimes, but even the thought of watching one on TV bores me. I will occasionally play a baseball videogame, but have never played through a whole season because I’m not a masochist. That said, I do enjoy baseball movies.  The sport films well, I guess.  Since Megan and I watched Moneyball last night, I thought I’d list my top four favorite baseball movies, a list that you will disagree with and vehemently tell me I’m wrong about.

1. For Love of the Game
2. A League of Their Own
3. Field of Dreams
4. Moneyball